On The Next Venture — I've been thinking about how I was going to write this post for a while now. Of course, I didn't anticipate that I would be writing at 2 AM local time in London, where I'm currently visiting to speak at FOWA in a couple of days (that talk also just potentially got more interesting).

Can Erick Schonfeld Keep the TechCrunch Swagger Alive? — As the veteran editor steps into the top job, his departing colleague is torching the fields behind him. — For the last decade, Erick Schonfeld has been the lone wolf of tech media, working as the East Coast point man …

Welcome To CrunchFund, MG Siegler — I want to welcome MG Siegler as our newest general partner at CrunchFund. MG, who I worked with for several years at TechCrunch, will join me and Patrick Gallagher in the next couple of weeks. More on this shortly. Update: MG's post with details on his decision is here.

Apple rejects Samsung offer to help end Australia dispute — (Reuters) - Apple Inc has rejected an offer from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co to help settle their tablet-computer dispute in Australia, hoping for an important court victory there in its global campaign of patent litigation.

iPhone 4S images appear on Apple's website — Need more proof that Apple's next iPhone allegedly dubbed the iPhone 4S will sport the same design as the current-generation iPhone 4? Well, a pair of images just appeared on Apple's website, representing the black and white iPhone 4S models.

HTC confirms security hole, says patch is incoming — HTC held true to its promise to look into the security vulnerability that surfaced over the weekend, an apparent glitch that allows any app requesting internet access to take a peek at a user account information, GPS location, system logs, and other potentially private data.

Evolving the Start menu … We'd like to share a series of blog posts on the how and why of reimagining Start. This first post talks about the history and evolution of the Start menu, and several of the problems and trends we've learned from you. We think it's always important to understand …

Apple's 'Let's Talk iPhone' keynote liveblog! — 11:11AM Also, if you're in the Cupertino area for the next half-hour or so, swing by and say hello. We're the pair of dudes near the front with Android handsets. — 11:11AM Got a few general iPhone fans gathering out here as well to watch the festivities from the sidelines.

Facebook Re-Enables Controversial Tracking Cookie — In May of this year the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook like buttons and other website widgets were setting cookies on visiting browsers. This cookie could then be read later and used to track the user across different web properties and back to the Facebook site.

Apple may face suit over search for unreleased iPhone — Cava22, the San Francisco bar where another unreleased iPhone went missing. — Sergio Calderon, the 22-year-old San Francisco man who accused Apple employees of impersonating police officers while searching his house for an unreleased iPhone, has hired a lawyer.

Yahoo Aims to Create a Voice for Its Media Sites — One company dominates online news, sports and finance. It has more visitors to its news site than the runner-up in the category, CNN, more in sports than ESPN and more in finance than Dow Jones, owner of The Wall Street Journal.